"For years now, we’ve been told that “coal is dead” and that India and China will plump for wind and solar, instead of coal-fired power.
Well, that’s the line being run by renewable energy rent seekers and wind and solar zealots around the globe.
It is ... complete bunkum.
With hundreds of millions still in abject poverty, both China and India haven’t got time to muck around with expensive, part-time power.
Industrialisation requires cheap and reliable power, not stuff that’s delivered in chaotic fits and spurts and, when it is, is insanely expensive, anyway.
... we wouldn’t be talking about wind or solar ‘industries’ in the absence of massive subsidies, guaranteed Feed in Tariffs, government mandates, targets or tax credits.
Australia is one of the world’s largest coal exporters, has abundant, high-quality reserves, and yet is faced with suicidal energy policies, which demonizes reliable and affordable coal-fired power and promotes chaotically intermittent wind and solar, with a raft of subsidies doled out under the Federal government Renewable Energy Target
The RET will cost power consumers more than $60,000,000,000 over the life of the scheme.
Where Australia’s political leadership seems hell-bent on destroying our economic competitiveness, both China and India have directed their efforts and resources at building phenomenal coal-fired power generation capacity.
Whatever lip service might be paid by China’s wolf warriors and Indian diplomats in international forums about ditching coal-fired power plants, the reality is that both countries are building coal-fired power plants, hand over fist.
And have absolutely no intention of slowing down that process.
30 March 2021
Energy economist Alan Moran says Australia is “going broke by being woke” for not “embracing” coal as the cheapest form of electricity – unlike China, we are negating any chance of once again becoming an “economic superpower”.
“We are being forced to reduce our competitiveness … at a time when China is becoming more and more affluent as a result of its uses of coal or the cheapest forms of electricity – and we are going broke by being woke,” he told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.
“The cheapest power for most countries is coal.
“We have the best coal in the world – the cheapest in the world.
We should have the lowest cost of electricity in the world – we did until recently – but we have basically undermined this through our domestic policies.
“Basically, coal is the cheapest form of electricity we have and we can be again an economic superpower – but only if we embrace this.”
"Well it’s not a game.
They’ve got a colossal amount of coal.
I mean seven times the amount of coal that we produce is produced in China and they unabashedly use that to produce power cheaply.
... if you look at the cost of electricity, then they’re basically coal generated as ours is.
But in their case, the cost of electricity is less than half our cost.
They have a lot…
They do have some wind, less than half, as much as we have per capita, much less than half as much, but they basically use this low cost energy to be the backbone of their booming economy.
And we’ve benefited from this, of course, as 35% of our exports are to China and they dominate our steel and our iron ore.
But we benefited from it, but its made us part of their, I guess, part of their economy, really.
We were a junior partner to China and it’s very difficult to see how we get out of this or whether we should get out of it.
There aren’t any alternative markets for us.
And yet we are now wedded, as you say to, in a dangerous situation in the world to a power which is partly democratic.
... They’re building lots and lots of new power stations all the time.
As are the other developing countries like Vietnam and Indonesia, India, of course, too.
People recognise that they’ve got to have cheap power.
And the cheapest power for most countries is coal. ... "
India to Double Down on Coal Projects
Amid Climate Warnings
Bloomberg Green
26 March 2021
India has set in motion the biggest ever auction of coal mines in the country despite the fossil fuel’s key role in contributing to global warming.
The country will put 67 mines on the block, the most in a single auction.
Winners will be allowed to produce and sell the fuel, a reform meant to dislodge state monopoly over the domestic coal market and open it up to private firms.
The deadline for submitting technical bids is May 27 and electronic auctions have been scheduled from June 28 to July 28, the coal ministry said on Thursday.
The auction sends mixed signals at a time when the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases needs to shed its dependence on coal.
... To be sure, the country has set aggressive goals to expand its renewable power portfolio, but coal still accounts for around 65% of its electricity generation.
“India can’t just stop using coal overnight, it will take a decade or two to do that,” according to Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies for Australia and South Asia at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, or IEEFA. “It’s still a necessary evil for the country for the medium term.”
... The government also sees private coal mining as a way to create jobs in an economy devastated by the pandemic.
Mining projects will bring in new investments and boost socio-economic development in mining regions, according to the ministry’s statement.
... The government began liberalization of the coal market last year.
But after opposition from some states and a lack of investor interest, it whittled down the list of mines to be auctioned from 41 to 19.
As the government prepared for the bids then, United Nations’ Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned against investments in fossil fuels, calling such projects “a human disaster and bad economics."